La Dee-vina Comedia

I really dislike the way the rookie list is used these days. In my opinion it should only ever be used for players under the age of 20 who didn't get selected in the main draft. (I exclude category B rookies, although I wouldn't call players in that category "rookies" anyway). If the AFL wants to have a list for delisted players who are getting second or third chances or players with long-term injuries, by all means allow it...just don't use up spots for genuine "rookies" in doing so. Call it a "supplementary list" or something else.

I think the opposite. I see Goodwin as a coach who will do all his experimenting and unexpected selections during the year so as to settle on the preferred approach well before finals. Injuries affect the availability of players, but I fully expect Goodwin to be conservative in finals and only go with what's been tried and tested already. I'd be shocked if we saw something we've never seen before.

or no news is no news.

I'm totally confused. I thought the discussion was about finals games against Collingwood in 1988 and 1989. Flower's last game was in 1987. So, when was this Danny Hughes/BT game?

Excellent post, Webber. Thankyou. So, Melksham will know that because of his age his only chance to play in a Premiership is 2024 .That can only happen if he's back playing senior football by (say) early August which means playing VFL by July. It would not surprise me in the least if he pursued the LARS approach (assuming it suits his particular injury) to give him that opportunity in the full knowledge that he will eventually need an allograft.

Carl specialised in disorderly, rather than orderly, conduct.

I like the subheading "Discuss everything to do with the Draft, Trade Week & Free Agency". Brought to you by the same people who refer to "peak hour traffic" and the "Women's Weekly" magazine, published monthly.

For the 60+ year olds on the forum, do you remember those games? (I'm over 60 and I don't.)

The club's conditioning team really do work hard to protect his hair.

Nicely said.

I'm trying to imagine the reverse omen, that is, what might have happened to a Collingwood supporter. Meeting a Demon at the gates of Hell, perhaps?

Just as many supporters of clubs other than ours probably have no idea who Judd McVee is, I confess I have no knowledge of Max Michalanney. I don't believe I've ever heard his name before in any context.

We seem not to hear about the LARS approach to repairing torn ACLs any more. However, if I were Melksham and the LARS technique was suitable, I'd be very tempted to choose this approach to allow me to get back to playing in 2024 in time for another chance to play finals. I would be thinking that I'm unlikely to be given a contract for 2025 so I need to do whatever I can to maximise my chance for one more shot at a Premiership in 2024. However, I don't know whether LARS is suitable for this particular injury.

So, who was third?

I'm more concerned with his DNA. Seems like he may have inherited a propensity for bone fractures. I hope all the Fritsch family are recovering well.

I'm not sure of the right thread to make this comment, but how ludicrous is the AFL's scheduling for the first week of finals? There are three night games all being played in the same time zone yet each starts at a different time. Our game starts at 7.20pm, the Friday game at 7.50pm and the Saturday game at 7.25pm. You can argue the merits of each time, but surely every night game in the same time zone (and two of them at the same ground) should start at the same time.

If this same comment appeared in the Collingwood supporters' bulletin board, I wonder what they would make of it? Would they assume it had something to do with their, ahem, personal relationship with the prison system?

That may well be right. I still think it's the sort of question that should be asked instead of the base level nonsense that most sports "journalists" participate in. Goodwin would then have had the opportunity to explain why. It may have been injury management, it might have been a view that the club believed McDonald was never going to be physically better than he was at the time (now proven to be wrong, if we accept Goodwin's description) or that there was no-one else available so they had to play him injured.

Did anyone ask Goodwin the obvious question? That is, if McDonald is moving the best he's been for some time, why was he playing previously if he wasn't right?

I think it's a testament to the coaches and the team how well we've done given the forward line problems. It's amazing to think that in the round 23 game against Hawthorn we had only two of the seven forwards who played in the 2021 Grand Final. All of Jackson, McDonald, Brown, Spargo and Fritsch were missing for one reason or another. ANB and Kossie were the only two who remained.

If it wasn't for the broadcasters I wouldn't have known that Sydney was playing for a home final. How many times did it get mentioned? 10? 12?

Keep in mind that odds are a reflection on the bookies' liability. There are so many Collingwood supporters, I assume there's more money being held for a Collingwood win just for this reason alone. Hence, Collingwood's odds might be a bit shorter with the betting companies than they truly deserve. Nevertheless, I can see the argument that they deserve to start favourites.

I wish him well. I'm strongly of the view that Melksham will move into coaching, eventually with ambition to be a senior coach. Does anyone know what the rules are for players with injuries like this which come at the end of a contract? Because it's a 12 month injury (usually) do we have a legal obligation to keep him on our list next year? Or, if he's out of contract, do we just not offer him a new one? It's a messy end, either way, unless he was already adamant that he wanted to retire at season's end.

I suspect it's not a question of whether Bowey gets dropped but rather has he received a shoulder/arm/AC joint injury that might keep him out.

In the last game he played (was it against Carlton as the sub?), I thought Hibberd looked like a player who had finally lost any remaining pace that he had left. I'd be surprised - but pleasantly - if he gets recalled.